


The Size of the Fight

by Raelilly



Category: HoO - Fandom, PJO - Fandom, percy jackson - Fandom
Genre: Father Figure Nico, M/M, Protective Nico, Solangelo Week, Solangelo Week 2020, Sparring practice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24853555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raelilly/pseuds/Raelilly
Summary: Nico knows that when it comes to a fight size doesn’t matter. Now he just has to teach his youngest student that same lesson.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 7
Kudos: 109
Collections: Solangelo Week 2020





	The Size of the Fight

**Author's Note:**

> Yay Solangelo Week! I have to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Father’s Day, so instead I went with Nico acting in as a type of father figure. Just something fun, I hope you like it!

“Elbows up Stephanie, don’t let your stance drop just because you’re on the offensive!” Nico smiled as Stephanie corrected her elbows, then proceeded to knock her sparring partner, Maia, to the ground. “Good, see? Reset. Maia this time I want you to take the offensive. Go.”  
Nico continued down the row of sparring pairs, occasionally giving advice or praise. He had taken over as the primary sword fighting instructor this summer, since Percy was headed to Camp Jupiter for college, and he was pleased with his student’s progress. Especially with the class he was currently teaching. The Athena cabin typically excelled in combat training, so they made for a rewarding class for Nico. They hadn’t learned anything new in this class, he had decided to go with open sparring to let them work on the skills they had already learned so far, and it was proving to be a good plan. Many students were trying out some of the skills they had learned over the last week, which meant Nico only had to call out the occasional correction. In fact, Nico was so pleased with their progress he was considering cutting class short and giving them some free time before lunch. Until he turned and saw his last sparring pair.   
Lily was the youngest member of the Athena cabin at only 8 years. Because of this she was paired with Malcolm, who had taken over as head counselor when Annabeth had left. Lily was typically a bright and intelligent student, so it was concerning that she was standing with her sword point buried in the dirt, her eyes cast down behind a curtain of light brown hair.   
“Come on Lil, you did so well with this last class, I know you can do it,” Malcolm tried to encourage the girl, “look, here’s Nico, don’t you want to show him what you’ve learned?”  
Lily shook her head, eyes still fixed on the ground.   
Malcolm met Nico’s eyes and sighed. “She really was doing well last class, I don’t know what’s gotten into her this week.”  
“I remember,” Nico answered as he crouched down to try to get Lily to look up, “you were doing really well with your parries, I thought we would be able to start on some offensive skills this week. Do we need to review?”  
Lily shook her head again, eyes still fixed on the ground.  
“Then show me, I know what you’re capable of,” Nico reached a hand out to direct her into the correct stance, only to jerk his hand back when she let out a sob. He instead turned to Malcolm, whose face only reflected Nico’s own confusion.   
“Wait, are you hurt?” Nico yelled over his shoulder, “Maia, run and grab Will please. Hurry!”   
Maia didn’t even nod before rushing off to the infirmary. She was fast, and Will was even faster, which calmed Nico’s nerves a bit. Help was on the way. He reached out again, this time lifting the girl’s chin, tears shining on her cheeks. The entire class had stopped around them, their attention diverted to their sibling.  
“Lily, tell me what happened, where are you hurt?”  
Lily shook her head again, but at least she finally looked Nico in the eyes. “Not hurt.” Relief pushed through the panic Nico had been feeling, “Just can’t fight.”  
“Can’t fight?” Nico looked to Malcolm, who was still wearing the same look of confusion, “of course you can fight, you’ve been doing really well!”  
Lily rolled her eyes as if Nico was clearly the most dense person she had spoken to all week. “No, Kyle said that I’m too small to fight, and that it’s a waste of time and I should just learn to weave instead. But I don’t like weaving, I wanna fight.”  
Nico was still confused, but the growl from Malcolm told him he was missing something.   
“Kyle?” Nico turned to Malcolm, who’s face was a picture of rage, “The big kid in Ares?”  
“Yeah. He’s as friendly as you would expect.” Malcolm’s mouth set in an angry line.   
“Lily, there’s no such thing as too small to fight, it’s a skill that anyone can learn. It’s just like we’ve talked about, you play to your skills.”   
Timing perfect as always, Will ran into the practice arena, his medical bag over his shoulder. “I came as fast as I could, what happened?”  
“It seems I didn’t really need to send for you, no injuries,” Nico smiled at Will, “but we still need you, can you stay for a bit?”  
Will tilted his head to the side in question, but answered, “Yeah, slow day in the infirmary so I can stay for a bit.”  
“OK good, thank you.” Nico turned back to Lily, “Now, how much taller than me would you say Will is?”  
Lily gave Will a once over, “about six inches?”  
Will chuckled, and Nico glared at him, “four inches, but whatever, it doesn’t matter. The point is he’s bigger than me. So what do you think would happen if I attacked him?”  
Lily sniffed, “I don’t know but you shouldn’t. He’s a medic, and it’s against the Geneva Convention to knowingly attack a medic. You don’t want to be a war criminal, do you Nico?”  
Nico looked to Malcolm, who now wore a proud smile, “We’ve been studying ethical warfare in our free time at the cabin. She gets it man.”   
“Right, ok, so then, where would the Ares cabin be right about now?”  
Malcolm shrugged, thankfully Will piped in with a grin, “Clarisse mentioned something about volleyball at breakfast.”  
“Ok, I’ll be right back, Malcolm is in charge while I’m gone. Will stay here, I might still need you.”  
Will gave a two fingered salute as he leaned against the nearest practice dummy. Nico gave a quick prayer of thanks to Apollo for the ride-or-die attitude all of his children seemed to have inherited, then reached out to the shadows cast by the equipment shed. He drew himself into the darkness, quickly dropped at the volleyball court, grabbed what he needed, and used the shadows to transport himself back to the training arena.   
Nico felt the arena floor solidify beneath his feet, and then felt the crash of his passenger hitting the ground.  
“Oh shit what the FUCK was that?” His passenger groaned at his feet.   
“Shadow traveling,” Will interjected helpfully, “side effects may include dizziness, temporary disorientation, and nausea. You should be fine in a few minutes though, it was a short trip.”  
Nico looked to Malcolm, who was now grinning, “Hey Kyle.”  
“Fuck off.” Kyle groaned.  
“Kyle,” Nico chimed in, “I understand you and Lily have been discussing proper fighting technique. I thought you might want to help me to give her a live demonstration, how does that sound?”  
Kyle seemed to be coming to his senses after the shadow travelling, “I don’t really, I mean, you don’t need me, right? I really should be, Clarisse is gonna be....”  
“Don’t worry,” Nico grabbed Kyle’s hand and pulled him up from the ground, “Clarisse won’t mind once I tell her it was for me. Pick your weapon,” Nico drew his own sword, the black metal glinted ominously in the afternoon sun. Kyle selected a bronze sword, slightly longer than Nico’s own blade, a smart choice. “Now, Lily, pay attention. With that blade Kyle has a greater reach, so what should my strategy be?”  
Lily chewed her lip briefly, and looked to Malcolm, who only nodded in encouragement. “Well, you want to be quicker, and try to get inside his defenses, where your shorter blade will give you an advantage.”  
Nico grinned “Ok, great plan, lets see how it goes.”  
The two had stepped into the main sparring ring, the rest of the class stretching out around them to get a better view. Nico was just about to begin when they were interrupted.  
“Di Angelo, what the fuck? Why are you stealing my campers?” Clarisse pushed through the small crowd and stopped next to Will’s spot at the training dummy. Will gave her a high five.  
“Hey Clarisse. Kyle was telling Lily here that she was too small to fight, so I thought he should give us a demonstration as to what a big strong fighter can do. You don’t mind, do you?”  
Clarisse seemed to pick up on Nico’s mood quickly, she looked to where Kyle was now standing awkwardly, blade in hand, “Is that right?” She asked.  
Kyle scratched the back of his neck, “Well I mean, I didn’t really mean...”  
Clarisse snorted and cut him off, “yeah, you deserve what you get. Fighters ready?” Nico grinned. “GO.”  
To be fair, Kyle did put up a good fight, unfortunately given Nico’s speed and experience, he was just out matched. Nico did just as Lily suggested, he was able to quickly get inside of Kyle’s defenses, pushing him down and disarming him in one smooth movement, pushing the point of his blade to Kyle’s throat just to further prove his point.   
“See Lily? Work with the advantages you have.” He reached a hand down to help Kyle up. “I expect you all to show me you’ve been practicing by next class, but we’re out of time, so class dismissed.”  
Lily grinned at Nico before taking Malcolm’s hand to leave the arena. Malcolm discreetly bumped Nico’s fist before they turned to leave.   
Will and Clarisse approached as the rest of the class stored their weapons and filed out of the arena. “I assume no medical care is required?” Will asked as he casually looked Kyle over.  
“No. I’m fine, he wouldn’t have even won if I hadn’t let him.” Kyle spat, eyes on the ground.  
“Uh-huh” Will answered with a smile. Clarisse just smacked the back of Kyle’s head and whispered “Moron.”  
“Yeah. Good thing one of us was holding back,” Nico glared at Kyle, “somebody could have gotten hurt.”  
Kyle seemed to understand that for the threat it was, he gulped audibly before Clarisse stepped in. “Alright, so I think we’ve learned an important lesson today, don’t you Kyle? If you’ll excuse us, we have to gather up the rest of our cabin for lunch. Kyle, thank di Angelo so we can go.”  
“Thank him for what?” Indignation was clear in Kyle’s voice.  
“For not kicking your ass moron, let’s go.”  
“Thank you.” Kyle muttered at the ground.   
“My pleasure,” Nico answered. He hoped the grin plastered across his face was evident in his voice, Kyle still refused to make eye contact. Clarisse pushed Kyle’s shoulder and they headed out of the arena.  
“I’m guessing you’ll tell me what all that was about over lunch?” Will slipped his arm through Nico’s and started towards the dining pavilion.   
“I doubt I’ll have to, I’m guessing Malcolm will have told everyone by the time we get there.”  
“Fantastic, then let’s hurry, I’m starving.”


End file.
